Importing Data from Entourage 2004 into Entourage 2008

[Monte]

Whenever I tried to install Office 2008 on my G5 PPC I received the
message that the database was corrupted and was unable to continue.

I got around this by copying all my information from the drive to a
external firewire drive, turning the drive off the formatting the
drive installing a system and the Office 2008. After Office 2008 was
working I turned my firewire drive on and copied everything back. Now
Office 2008 worked and Office 2004 worked.

The only problem is I am unable to copy my data from Entourage 2004
into Entourage 2008. I have tried importing the Office 2004 identity I
see no result at all. I anyone can offer a solution I would be most
grateful. I am using Office 2008 for everything except email at this
point and Entourage 2004 for email. Hopefully this is temporary as
Entourage is my most used Office application.

Monte

 

[Monte]

Whenever I tried to install Office 2008 on my G5 PPC I received the
message that the database was corrupted and was unable to continue.

I got around this by copying all my information from the drive to a
external firewire drive, turning the drive off the formatting the
drive installing a system and the Office 2008. After Office 2008 was
working I turned my firewire drive on and copied everything back. Now
Office 2008 worked and Office 2004 worked.

The only problem is I am unable to copy my data from Entourage 2004
into Entourage 2008. I have tried importing the Office 2004 identity I
see no result at all. I anyone can offer a solution I would be most
grateful. I am using Office 2008 for everything except email at this
point and Entourage 2004 for email. Hopefully this is temporary as
Entourage is my most used Office application.

Monte

I should add that in both Office 2004 and Office 2008 English was the
language preference.

Monte

 

[Diane Ross]

Whenever I tried to install Office 2008 on my G5 PPC I received the
message that the database was corrupted and was unable to continue.

The installer and setup assistant are actually two different processes.

* The Microsoft User Data (MUD) folder is in the user account folder, if the
database went ³bad² then the setup assistant could not go past the identity
pane.
* When the Setup Assistant gets to the identity pane the Setup Assistant
will look to the MUD folder for the Entourage database and attempt to read
it. So, if the database is bad, then the Setup Assistant would not be able
to move beyond this pane.
* Move the MUD folder to the desktop and then try the setup assistant again.

I got around this by copying all my information from the drive to a
external firewire drive, turning the drive off the formatting the
drive installing a system and the Office 2008. After Office 2008 was
working I turned my firewire drive on and copied everything back. Now
Office 2008 worked and Office 2004 worked.

Did the setup assistant run after you reformatted the drive?

The only problem is I am unable to copy my data from Entourage 2004
into Entourage 2008. I have tried importing the Office 2004 identity I
see no result at all. I anyone can offer a solution I would be most
grateful. I am using Office 2008 for everything except email at this
point and Entourage 2004 for email. Hopefully this is temporary as
Entourage is my most used Office application.

Just to be clear...your Office 2004 and Office 2008 Identities are both on
your main drive in the Documents Microsoft User Data folder.

Could you contact me off-list for help. I'm working with one of the
developers to track down problems importing into 2008.

diane AT entourage dot mvps dot org

 

[Monte]

The installer and setup assistant are actually two different processes.

* The Microsoft User Data (MUD) folder is in the user account folder, if the
database went ³bad² then the setup assistant could not go past the identity
pane.
* When the Setup Assistant gets to the identity pane the Setup Assistant
will look to the MUD folder for the Entourage database and attempt to read
it. So, if the database is bad, then the Setup Assistant would not be able
to move beyond this pane.
* Move the MUD folder to the desktop and then try the setup assistant again.




Did the setup assistant run after you reformatted the drive?




Just to be clear...your Office 2004 and Office 2008 Identities are both on
your main drive in the Documents Microsoft User Data folder.

Could you contact me off-list for help. I'm working with one of the
developers to track down problems importing into 2008.

diane AT entourage dot mvps dot org

Okay I replied to you directly a couple times now. Now what?

 

[Diane Ross]

Okay I replied to you directly a couple times now. Now what?

I have never received your messages. Did you fix the address before sending?

Fix this address --> diane AT entourage dot mvps dot org

 

[Monte]

I have never received your messages. Did you fix the address before sending?

Fix this address --> diane AT entourage dot mvps dot org

Okay I filled out the questionaire that you email and sent it back to
you on February 29th at 1 PM EST. No reply to date.

Not trying to push you, but I would like to resolve this issue. Did
you receive it?

Monte

 

[Diane Ross]

Okay I filled out the questionaire that you email and sent it back to
you on February 29th at 1 PM EST. No reply to date.

Not trying to push you, but I would like to resolve this issue. Did
you receive it?

Reply just sent off list.

 

[RRgibbons]

Dear list folks,

I too am trapped with my office 2004 identities unusable with entourage in Mac Office 2008. I have spent about 5 hours now, and finally got entourage 2008 to run and build a blank new identity by pulling ALL office-related files out of my system, including the user data folders. Now entourage 2008 is willing to create a new identity, but any efforts to touch the 2004 identities results in crashing entourage 2008. Trying to import the 2004 data ends up creating useless entities that crash entourage 2008.

As I was moving from office mac 2004 to 2008, I assumed that the data would be transferrable, and the software acts like this is possible. Am I missing something obvious?

While i have the original factory box and product ID # for my office mac 2004, i cannot find my original program disk. This means I cannot go backwards, as the office 2008 install had me remove the office 2004 code from my system.

I WOULD like to access the hundreds of e-mails and e-mail addresses locked up in my 2004 identity...If there a live service for us office Mac users that I can call for specific assistance, even if I have to pay for it?

 

[Rick McCutcheon]

I have Mac Office 2008 sitting here ready to install. I've been reading in these forums to come up to steam on issues -- so far, the one identified in this thread is the only one that has me worried. I will really need access to the email in E2004. Of course, I have everything backed up to external drives, but I would like to hear some people say that the switch went fine. Has anybody found that they were able to import their E2004 email database and settings into E2008 with minimal (or no) major grief?

Rick
PBG4-1.67 / OS10.4.11

 

[Diane Ross]

I have Mac Office 2008 sitting here ready to install. I've been reading in
these forums to come up to steam on issues -- so far, the one identified in
this thread is the only one that has me worried. I will really need access to
the email in E2004. Of course, I have everything backed up to external drives,
but I would like to hear some people say that the switch went fine. Has
anybody found that they were able to import their E2004 email database and
settings into E2008 with minimal (or no) major grief?

Yes, but some people have had trouble. This is what I suggest.

1. Do not delete Office 2004 when installing.
2. Backup your Office 2004 Identity folder.
3. Install from CD, Restart, Update to SP1, Restart. Now import your
data.(note the AutoUpdate will update first.)
If import fails...
4. You can try to force an update or...
5. Manually move over your data.

After you successfully import...
1. Backup often
2. Set to leave mail on server for up to a week

This way if your database fails shortly after importing, you will not have
any lost mail. Once you manually move your data into a new Entourage 2008
Identity, it will be extremely stable. There is just something about
importing that is a bit hinky. SP1 is supposed to fix some of these issues.

For details see:

How to manually move your data. (when import fails and/or you need to move
to a new Identity same version)

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/manual_install.html>

 

[Sabine]

I have Mac Office 2008 sitting here ready to install. I've been reading in these forums to come up to steam on issues -- so far, the one identified in this thread is the only one that has me worried. I will really need access to the email in E2004. Of course, I have everything backed up to external drives, but I would like to hear some people say that the switch went fine. Has anybody found that they were able to import their E2004 email database and settings into E2008 with minimal (or no) major grief?

Rick
PBG4-1.67 / OS10.4.11

Hi Rick,

I just managed the nearby impossible task to import all data from 04 into the 08 version of entourage...

You first of will have to check your entourage db in 2004 with the database utility programme and then compress it. After compressing do a new database - still in 04 whereby your olde database gets reinstalled.

Then switch to entourage 08 and start importing the data from 04. After importing your data will get updated to 2008 version. By all chances entourage 08 will tell you your data are corrupted and you need to re-check them. Hopefully it will display your database after importing in the database utility programme (mine did on the uptenth try)... and then have the database checked, compressed and re-worked.... after you have done all that, it will work - at least it did at my end.... and depending on the size of the database it might take time, a long time. Mine took about short of 100 hours with all the tries beforehand, actual conversion time was about 60 hours... best to do it over a weekend or so...

Hope this helps you as well...
Sabine

 

[Diane Ross]

I just managed the nearby impossible task to import all data from 04 into the
08 version of entourage...

You first of will have to check your entourage db in 2004 with the database
utility programme and then compress it. After compressing do a new database -
still in 04 whereby your olde database gets reinstalled.

Then switch to entourage 08 and start importing the data from 04. After
importing your data will get updated to 2008 version. By all chances entourage
08 will tell you your data are corrupted and you need to re-check them.
Hopefully it will display your database after importing in the database
utility programme (mine did on the uptenth try)... and then have the database
checked, compressed and re-worked.... after you have done all that, it will
work - at least it did at my end.... and depending on the size of the database
it might take time, a long time. Mine took about short of 100 hours with all
the tries beforehand, actual conversion time was about 60 hours... best to do
it over a weekend or so...

This is not normal. My upgrade took less than 20 minutes. What size was your
database?

For help installing Office see this page:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/install_office2008.html>

Importing your data: See tips to clean up your database before importing.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/import_export/import_older.html>

When Import Identity or Rebuild Fails

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/import_export/manual_install.html>

Force an Update described will often work when import fails.

Import fails to find identity Error:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/error/install_update.html#fails4>

 

[RRgibbons]

Success: I stripped all MS office 2008 off my machine. Reinstalled it. Entourage created a new 2008 identity. Stripped out the data base created in the establishment of that new identity. Stuck in the 2004 database in place of the deleted 2008 database. Re-started, and Entourage converted the old e-mail and addresses. Whew!

 

[Diane Ross]

Success: I stripped all MS office 2008 off my machine. Reinstalled it.
Entourage created a new 2008 identity. Stripped out the data base created in
the establishment of that new identity. Stuck in the 2004 database in place of
the deleted 2008 database. Re-started, and Entourage converted the old e-mail
and addresses. Whew!

This is called a force update. If that doesn't work you can manually move
over your data.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/import_export/manual_install.html>